Everything goes right in UVA domination of Chanticleers

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Elliott has been waiting three years for a game like Saturday’s blowout of Coastal Carolina before a stadium-record crowd on the Chanticleers’ “Smurf Turf” field.

Elliott has dreamed about his team road grading an opponent with a dominating running game, leading to a lopsided outcome. That’s exactly what he got Saturday, as Virginia piled up 525 yards of offense — 384 of it with a commanding ground attack — en route to a 43-24 win.

UVA, showing the ability to bounce back after a loss to Maryland a week ago, advanced to 3-1 on the season headed into a bye week, where it expects some of its injured players to heal up.

On paper, it appeared Coastal might be vulnerable to a strong passing attack, but as it developed, the Chanticleers couldn’t physically match up with the Cavaliers’ running attack, even with UVA operating with a patchwork offensive line.

Virginia’s ground game cut the Chanticleers to ribbons, averaging a whopping 6.6 yards per rush. Xavier Brown, finally healthy, emerged as UVA’s best back, running railroad stakes down the Chanticleers’ throats for an eye-popping 171 yards on only 9 touches.

“We settled in with the run, and when [Coastal] didn’t make the adjustments to be able to stop it, so I told them just keep pounding away and let our guys build some confidence in the run game,” Elliott said.

“We want to run the football. We want to be efficient. In games when we have the opportunity to lead and dominate with the rush, that’s what we want to do.”

Elliott and his staff recognized during Brown’s freshman season that he was a little different and explosive. At that point, the Lexington, Ky., native primarily used his speed to run to the edge. Now, he’s also productive at running between the tackles and using his burst when he sees daylight.

Coastal had no answer for Brown, who averaged 19 yards per carry, including a 75-yard run to the Chanticleers’ 10-yard line during a drive that essentially iced the game at 37-10 midway through the third quarter.

“Today, we were a ground-and-pound team,” said Virginia center Brian Stevens. “We got after it.”

Accurate analysis from UVA’s best lineman, a surefire future pro.

Prior to Saturday afternoon under a blazing Myrtle Beach sun (the Atlantic is only 15 miles from Coastal’s campus), Virginia had to basically rely on sophomore quarterback Anthony Colandrea’s arm. While the blonde, swashbuckling Colandrea provided plenty of entertainment, the football-knowledgable crowd knew that the Cavaliers would never reach their goals this season if they couldn’t develop a reliable running game.

Certainly, that changed the game. UVA was a 3.5-point favorite coming in, but that quickly turned into so much more as all the statistical shortcomings transformed into strengths.

Virginia entered the weekend as one of the worst third-down conversion teams in the country. Thanks to a strong running attack, Colandrea wasn’t faced with third-and-long all day and didn’t feel the need to get the ball airborne all day.

The Cavaliers were 9 of 18 on third downs and 2 of 3 on fourth downs, thanks to reserve QB Grady Brosterhaus & Friends on the “Tush Push” play.

The run also took pressure off when in the Red Zone, also a previous weakness for UVA, but on this day Des Kitchings’ offense was 5 for 6 in converting scoring opportunities.

The Cavaliers also took advantage of Coastal mistakes, turning two early Chanticleer turnovers into touchdowns (see related game story with stats package and notebook).

Everything that had previously gone wrong for Elliott’s squad suddenly evolved into strengths.

“It wasn’t our night,” said Coastal coach Tim Beck, whose team was unbeaten coming into the game and was averaging more than 40 points per game, in addition to outscoring three previous opponents 41-6 in the collective first quarters.

“We didn’t play good. I sit here every week and talk about winning the turnover battle. Everybody says that’s coach talk. It’s real. We lost it and how did the game go? You’ve got to win third down. You’ve got to win in the red zone.”

Virginia’s defense was just as dominant as the Cavaliers’ offense. John Rudzinski’s ‘D’ limited Coastal to 4 of 13 on third downs, 1 of 4 on fourth downs, including a couple of significant stops.

By running the ball so efficiently, UVA held the ball for 37 minutes in the game, compared to Coastal’s 23.

“It’s a sign things are going in the right direction,” Brown said after his big day. “I think if we keep it up and keep our beliefs and keep backing it every week, we should get to where we want to go.”

Virginia wants to go bowling, and most observers believe the Cavaliers need to post as many wins as possible during the first half of the season because their schedule is backloaded with several challenging road games.

UVA is now 3-1, matching the win totals of Elliott’s first two seasons (3-7 in 2022, 3-9 in ‘23).

While his offense might not be able to match that kind of running production — UVA hasn’t posted that many yards on the ground since eventual All-American running back Thomas Jones was just a sophomore in 1998 — as Brown said, it’s possibly a sign that the ground game is coming together.

Dominating Coastal at home, where the Chanticleers had beaten 13 of their previous 14 nonconference foes, was a good feeling for Elliott, who has spent a lot of his life in the state of South Carolina.

“Just excited for the entire staff to be able to get back on the buses and fly back with a victory in South Carolina,” Elliott said. “It’s fun to win anywhere, doesn’t matter if it’s in Charlottesville, South Carolina or Alaska.”